Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies

I actually did not make these cookies..Travis did! We were both craving dessert, but had just polished off the ice cream the other night...(see what I mean about needing to eat a bit healthier??) I was busy studying for a test, so he offered/I coerced him into baking. He mentioned how he'd love a chocolate chip cookie, and I mentioned, with a convincing tone and sly smile, how I'd just seen a recipe for a delicious, whole wheat chocolate chip cookie...the next thing I knew, he was pulling ingredients out of the cupboard!

I was curious about this recipe as it was, so last night's dessert-shortage worked out well. The raves on Orangette's blog had me intigued..could a simple chocolate chip cookie really be as good as her post made it seem? Was it really the Best Chocolate Chip Cookie Ever? And how could one chocolate chip cookie be so much better than all the other perfectly delicious chocolate chip cookies out there? As it is, I am not someone who gets incredibly excited about chocolate chip cookies. Don't get me wrong--they are scrumptious, and I will never turn one down. But if I'm the one baking, I'll almost always prefer to make Pumpkin Cookies or ginger cookies or even double chocolate chip cookies. But rarely do I get the urge to bake plain old chocolate chippers. But Travis was the baker last night, so chocolate chip it was! And I will say--they were exactly what a good chocolate chip cookie should be: thick, crunchy on the outside, chewy on the inside. The nuttiness of the whole wheat flour was great--it offset the sweetness just right. My only complaint with this recipe was its greasiness(and here it becomes apparent: maybe there is no perfect chocolate chip cookie..with such high standards and so many delicious variations, will there ever be a totally pefect, everything-I've-ever-wanted-in-a-chocolate-chip-cookie, chocolate chip cookie??). I think this might have to do with the fact that Travis melted the butter in the microwave to soften it..But we'll overlook that! Why? Because I am convinced that the sooner he becomes fed up with mixing butter and sugar with his hands, as I have to do every time I bake, the sooner we will get a stand mixer.

All that being said, this is a great cookie. The only amount I cannot vouche for is the chocolate chips--we just added them by the handful. I'm sure the recipe's amount is fine, as our cookies were a little light in the chip department.

Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:
3 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 sticks (8oz.) unsalted butter (The recipe calls for cold and cubed butter, but we went for mostly liquified...Go with cold and cubed.)
1 cup lightly packed dark brown sugar (Oops again: we used light brown sugar. I doubt the difference is significant, but go with the dark just in case!)
1 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
8oz chocolate chips (the recipe calls for chunks of bittersweet chocolate..all we had was chocolate chips!)

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, and line three baking sheets with parchement paper.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt until combined. Set aside. In a large bowl, knead together the butter and sugars until thoroughly combined. Add the eggs one at a time, combnining between. Add the vanilla and combine again. Pour the flour mixture over the wet mixture, and mix until the flour is just combined. Dont' overmix! Finally, fold in the chocolate chips. Roll dough into balls equalling about 3tbsp and place evenly on the baking sheets, leaving 2-3 inches between each cookie (we got 8 per sheet). Bake for 8 minutes, then rotate completely (that is, bring the sheets on the bottom rack to the top and visa versa, and spin each sheet). Bake for another 8 minutes*. Allow the cookies to cool for five minutes on the sheets, then transfer them to wire cooling racks, or just dive right in!

Enjoy!

*EDIT: I just ate one of these cookies since tasting one fresh out of the oven last night...it's definitely very crunchy now. I'd recommend baking them for only 6 minutes after rotating the sheets.